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Pussy Willow
Ask 20 gardeners, and you’ll get 40 or more answers on what they consider signs of spring. One of the most common answers, though, will probably be Pussy Willow. Salix, the Willow family, claims more...
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Cedar Apple Rust
Once you see one, you start seeing them everywhere. Cedar Apple Rust-Juniper Spore Horn The first warm rain in the spring makes these spores appear on Red Cedar (Juniper) trees, completing part of its...
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Japanese Beetles
Gardeners, and especially Vermont ones, seem to like to share maxims. Like “Don’t like the weather? Wait 5 minutes.” My Nebraska wife said she’d heard that one out there too, so don’t go thinking that...
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Squirrel Business
I’m primarily a plant person, because I’m slow on the uptake and not very observant. Someone says “Look at that bird!” and by the time I’m looking even close to the right direction, let alone focusing...
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No-Mow at Richard Stockton
I recently received an email from Jessica Okazaki, from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, asking about Middlebury’s no-mow program. She is interested in starting a similar project at her...
View ArticleSeason Creep
Everybody has their own phenologies, their own timing of spring. First day the snow shovels get put away (unused in my driveway at all this year, I might add), first day of working without long johns...
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Watering
Pick up any plant biology book, and they consistently list the three macro nutrients all plants need as N, P, and K, the chemical symbols for Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus. But really, what we...
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Cultivating Hope, Wisdom, Compassion, and a Tree
Nature can teach us many things. Life, death, love. And Hope, Wisdom, and Compassion. How appropriate the 14th Dalai Lama uses ‘cultivating’, the act of promoting growth, to describe his wish for the...
View ArticleThe Butternut Seed Orchard
I’ve learned this summer a wonderful way to get attention is to build a one acre, 8′ high deer exclusion fence out on South Street past Eastview, brush hog down the existing corn, and not tell anyone...
View ArticleThe Botany of Syrup
Any kid will tell you maple syrup is special, but how special? Is tapping a maple tree like putting a spigot in the trunk? And why maple? In a wonderful book I’ve written about before by Nalini M....
View ArticleEmerald Ash Borer Presentation-This Wednesday
Part of my absence from the blog would be teaching my winter term class “Trees and the Urban Forest” again this semester. It’s a great class, in a super rushed sort of way all winter term classes...
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Satin Moth
I love getting emails from people concerning the landscape. After all, with more than 300 acres, there are probably things happening I’m missing. And in the chaos that is Commencement and Reunion, I...
View ArticleThe Trees are Alright
Abnormal weather always has people worrying about their trees and shrubs in the yard, and this winter is anything but normal. It’s the warm temperatures that are troubling, and many people have come up...
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